Timeline: 1631 to 1640

1631 The English build a fort on the
northern "Gold Coast" in Western Africa.

1631 The Republic of
Venice, a maritime power, has been declining, exacerbated
by the bubonic plague killing almost 500,000 people. The
government responds with a church built for Our Lady of
Health and Deliverance – Madonna della Salute.

1632 Galileo publishes his ideas about
the universe. Intellectuals across Europe applaud. The Church prohibits further
sales of the book, and Galileo is ordered to appear before the Inquisition in
Rome.

1632 The town of Boston is founded.

1635 Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu forbids
travel abroad, except for restricted voyages by ships to China and Korea. Books
from abroad are banned except for those on science, technology and military
tactics. A trading post near Nagasake remains after the Dutch there agree to
restrictions regarding trading and an end of signs of Christianity. The Dutch
enjoy seeing their trading rivals, the Spanish and Portuguese, expelled.

1635 The Puritans in
Massachusetts colony see tolerance as compromise with
God's
will. They banish an English clergyman, Roger Williams.

1636 Roger Williams
arrives in what today is Rhode Island, where he is to established
a settlement with twelve "loving
friends and neighbors."

1636 France, a largely Catholic country
but allied with the Dutch and the Swedes, enters the Thirty Years' War against
Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.

1637 Manchu troops, 30,000 in number,
have crossed the Yalu River into northern Korea. The Koreans recognize Manchu
suzerainty in place of Chinese suzerainty. A non-aggression pact and trade agreement
are established, and the Manchu withdraw.

1638 A raid by Pequot Indians kills
600 members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.